Victories

 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying:

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;
The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
This is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
 The Lord is a warrior;
The Lord is His name.” (Exodus 15:1-3)

 

          Read Hebrews 11. It’s too long to include here, but this morning, let’s be thankful for victories.

Victories we don’t notice.

Victories we do notice but that seem insignificant.

Victories that are bigger, or more significant.

Victories that lead to other victories.

Victories that happened a long time ago.

Victories that haven’t happened yet.

Victories that happened to someone else.

          Recently, I read a book written about one man’s attempts to write one thank  you note every day for a year. He didn’t quite make it, but his life changed drastically as a result of the attempt. Now I’m reading a book about a woman who was challenged to make a list of 1000 things for which she is thankful to God. Both of those are good challenges, but today I’m thinking about a specific category of things for which we should be thankful that we should list. As you’ve already guessed, it’s victories.

          Years ago, when I was working on my family history, I could show you lots of tiny victories. Every time I found a piece of information about someone, that was a victory. I had files full of victories. When I take pictures, I have a mixture of victories and losses. When I do something crafty or cook something that turns out usable or pleasing in some way, those are victories. They’re all tiny victories. These are all comparatively insignificant victories, but they’re still victories. When I lost weight, I recorded my weight every day. That gave me victories.

          I might be able to list thousands of these insignificant, seemingly selfish victories. But there are bigger victories. Your accepting Christ as your Savior was a victory. Every time you overcome temptation, even for a minute, is a victory. When you commit an act of righteousness, it’s a victory.

          The goal here isn’t to constantly pat ourselves on the back for what victorious people we are. It’s not to focus our attention on the ridiculously insignificant: “I took a breath! That’s a victory!” It might be a victory if you have lung problems, but the real key here is that victories are blessings God gives us. They are opportunities to practice gratitude. And if they seem trivial now, we can consider them practice for how we respond to bigger victories.

          What’s more, as we record the insignificant victories, and perhaps the stories that go with them, we’ll learn more about how our lives and victories work. We may have to wait, or struggle, hurt, help others achieve victories, or even die to gain the victory, but we’ve been there before, and remember what happened? And if you didn’t remember to thank God then, it’s not too late!

          This is the reason behind my Tuesday Ta-Da and my Saturday Satisfaction posts. We spend so much time struggling, and once the victory is won, it tends to be forgotten. Defeats haunt us, but victories disappear.